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22 Aug, 2015

Tennessee Watchdog: Open records may get a little less open

By Deborah Fisher|2015-08-22T13:15:50-05:00August 22, 2015|Categories: fees|0 Comments

Chris Butler with Tennessee Watchdog published a story about the upcoming public hearings about charging new fees to inspect public records: Tennessee Open Records may get a little less open. A reminder: If you can't make a public hearing, you can still send comments answering the main question to be posed by the Office of Open Records Counsel at the public hearings at this email address: [email protected]. 1. Should the TPRA permit record custodians to charge for inspection of public records? In Butler's story, he quotes Tennessee Press Association, TCOG and Lee Harrell, the lobbyist for the Tennessee Association of School Boards, which is pushing the legislation to change the law [...]

16 Aug, 2015

Newspapers make case against fees to access public records

By Deborah Fisher|2015-08-17T07:23:13-05:00August 16, 2015|Categories: fees|Tags: David Plazas, fees for public records, Jack McElroy|0 Comments

Two Tennessee newspapers editorialized against a legislative proposal to charge citizens new fees to access public records today. Jack McElroy David Plazas David Plazas, opinion engagement editor of The Tennessean and Jack McElroy, editor of the Knoxville News Sentinel, published pieces in advance of the three September hearings planned in Nashville, Knoxville and Jackson to gather input on a proposal to change the law to allow local government and state agencies to charge fees if someone wants to inspect a public record. Currently, the law requires that inspection be free, although charges can be made if the citizen wants copies. Read the columns here: Tell Tennessee to [...]

12 Aug, 2015

Hearings on public records fees scheduled for September

By Deborah Fisher|2015-08-18T10:10:18-05:00August 12, 2015|Categories: fees|Tags: Advisory Committee on Open Government, Ann Butterworth, fees for public records, Office of Open Records Counsel, TCOG news, Tennessee Press Association|4 Comments

The Office of Open Records Counsel has set public hearings for Sept. 15-17 in Knoxville, Nashville and Jackson to gather input on whether citizens should have to pay local and state government to inspect public records. The hearings on public records fees are being conducted after the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government and the Tennessee Press Association opposed bills in the last legislative session that would allow for the first time local governments and state agencies to charge labor fees to provide public records for citizen inspection. Currently, Tennessee law allows citizens free access to inspect public records, but allows charges if the citizen wants copies. TCOG, TPA and other [...]

8 Jul, 2015

My favorite part of the ACOG meeting about charging new fees for public records (VIDEO)

By Deborah Fisher|2015-07-09T01:26:30-05:00July 8, 2015|Categories: fees|Tags: Advisory Committee on Open Government, Ann Butterworth|0 Comments

The Office of Open Records Counsel has posted video of the meeting she held with the Advisory Committee on Open Government Committee meeting from June 29. The topics covered were upcoming public hearings and questionnaires to gather information so, as Open Records Counsel Ann Butterworth told the group, she can make her recommendation to the Legislature, presumably on whether or not to propose new fees on citizens to inspect public records, and if so, how. (See previous blog post: Public hearings, survey to gather citizen, government input on public records fee proposal.) Since the video is long (1 hour and 43 minutes), I've highlighted a part of the video below that takes [...]

30 Jun, 2015

Public hearings, survey to gather citizen, government input on public records fee proposal

By Deborah Fisher|2015-06-30T16:03:41-05:00June 30, 2015|Categories: fees|Tags: Advisory Committee on Open Government, Ann Butterworth, Blake Farmer, David Moore, Dick Williams, Don Long, fees for public records, Janet Kleinfelter, Lucian Pera, Robb Harvey, State Rep. Bob Ramsey, State Rep. Steve McDaniel, State Sen. Jim Tracy, Sumner County|0 Comments

Three public hearings will be held around the state in September to gather opinions and input about a legislative proposal to allow local and state government agencies to charge fees to citizens to inspect public records. Currently, the Tennessee Public Records Act says that citizens must be allowed to view public records for free, but citizens can be charged if they request copies of those records. In the case of copies, citizens by law can be charged both the actual cost of the copy and a per-hour labor fee for the time it takes to compile the records after the first hour. Open Records Counsel Ann Butterworth outlined her draft [...]

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